The grain of the meat was fine, and a more perfect carcass was never seen. The bone of the leg Cattle in the Peak hundred must necessarily depend upon hay for their food, during many weeks of the year. In 1807, there was snow more or less upon the ground about Matlock, from the 1st of the previous November until the 30th of April, and farmers on the Dove pastures foddered their cows during twenty-nine weeks. We have mentioned the roots used for the food of neat stock. Oil-cake is not much esteemed in this county.-The summer food of neat cattle is natural grass and the sown or artificial grasses. A few dairies experience great advantage by the early or spring use of watered or irrigated grass.-Soiling or summer stall feeding has been recommended by the practice of Samuel Rowland, esq. of Mickleover, who considers this method beneficial not only as economizing food, but as preventing the injuries sustained from the gad-fly in the summer months.* Around Derby, Chesterfield and other large and populous towns, there are numbers of cows kept; and their milk is sent twice a-day, in conical tin cans, carried in carts, or slung on the sides of asses or horses, for the supply of the inhabitants.-Cows are kept at Duffield and Mellor for the supply of the cotton-mill hands and other work-people; and throughout the Glossop district, where operatives are employed in between fifty and sixty manufactories, a large proportion of the grass land is appropriated to the produce of milk and butter. Much of the grass land on the northern side of Scarsdale supplies Sheffield with the same articles. Milk is usually sold at about 2d. per quart; but butter varies in price from 1s. to 1s. 6d. or 1s. 8d. according to circum stances. Cheese is the most important article in the economy of a Derbyshire farm. Poor land is thought to yield the fattest cheese, though in smaller quantity, than the better soils; but this poor land is confined to the limestone districts. Old sward generally affords more and better cheese than grass upon lands that have been ploughed. Dairy cows, kept upon artificial grasses, are seldom * It is an ancient custom with the Vernon family, at Sudbury, to buy and keep two bulls in the park, to be killed and given to the poor of the place, on Old Christmas-Day. found useful in a cheese farm. Nevertheless there are farmers of a different opinion, and the advantages derivable from a change of crop are found to counterbalance the objections alleged against fresh grasses. The produce of cheese from each cow is from 2 to 5 cwt. The Derbyshire cheese is mostly of a good quality, yet the method of making it varies considerably, the general mode is as follows: "When the milk is sufficiently cold, (the colder it is, when put together for making cheese, is here considered the better) enough rennet is put to it to make it come in an hour. It is then stirred, or broken with the hand very small, and left to settle about thirty minutes; then the whey is got from the curd as much as possible, and the latter gathered into a firm state in the cheese-pan. A vat is then placed over the pan and the curd broken slightly into it, and afterwards pressed by the hand in the vat whilst any crushings will run from it; a small quantity of the curd is then cut off round the edge of the vat and broken small in the middle of the cheese, which, after a little more pressing is turned in the vat, and the same method of cutting the edge off is again observed; afterwards, a clean dry cloth is put over and under the cheese in the vat, and it is consigned to the press for one hour. It is then again turned in the vat, and pressed ten hours, when it is taken out and salted on both sides. If the cheese is of the weight of twelve pounds, a large handful of salt is used for each side. Afterwards it is again put in the vat, wrapped in another clean dry cloth and carried back to the press, where it is kept two or three days, but turned every twelve hours; the last time it is turned it is put into a dry vat, without a cloth, to take away any impressions. This kind of cheese is in perfection at a year and a half or two years old. To keep it clean and make it look well, it is rubbed, while soft, twice a week with a linen cloth: and afterwards, once in every week or fortnight with a hair cloth." In some dairies, when the curd is broken into the vat, it is reduced as much as possible, that the cheese may be rendered more sound. Its quality is mild, and its taste resembles the Gloucestershire. About two thousand tons are supposed to be sent annually to London, or exported from the sea-ports on the east coast. A good dairy farm produces nearly four hundred weight of cheese from each cow within the year. The cheese is always made from the new milk, so that the quantity of butter obtained is inconsiderable, and mostly made from the whey, which is all set up for cream, and gathered into large earthen cream-pots every twenty-four hours. It is afterwards boiled twice or thrice a week: and in some dairies, to keep it as sweet as possible, is removed into clean vessels once in three days. In other dairies this precaution is not taken, as the cream is thought best when sour. A small quantity of milk cream is then gathered to the whey cream, and both are churned together; the butter produced is not considerably inferior to the real milk butter. Selling of cheese.-Since the making of the Trent and Mersey, the Derby and the Erewash and other canals, the trade in this staple commodity of Derbyshire farming has been much changed, and is now principally conducted as follows, viz. at several of the wharfs on these navigations large cheese-warehouses have been built, and an experienced person appointed as the clerk of each, whose business it is to receive the cheeses from the farmers' teams, who deliver them at appointed times, rejecting and returning any which are cracked or damaged, or not sufficiently dried; and to stack up, and from time to time to turn and rub, and attend to the stock under his care, taking out all such as crack or show symptoms of decay, to be disposed of in the neighbourhood for present consumption; and when the factors or dealers, on whose account the cheeses are sent in, make sales or contracts for quantities of cheese, it is the business of these clerks to see that none but perfect cheeses, and such as will bear the carriage, are weighed or sent off from the warehouses; by which means the uniformity and credit of the commodity is upheld and all parties seem benefited. Several cheese factors reside in Derby and others in the county; some of these buy large quantities annually, principally on commission, for London dealers, or for those who have the government contracts. In the month of August the factors usually travel round the county, and call on the small dairymen, to examine their cheeses, made from two to four weeks before the time of this visit: and after feeling the latter-made cheeses and tapping several of the earlier ones, if the dairy be new to them, they usually bargain for, and mark those cheeses that they accept. Some small dairymen, being obliged to sell for want of money, generally accept the prices thus offered by the factors, and within two or three days after, they usually deliver it at the warehouses at Derby, Shardlow, Horninglow, &c.; where it is weighed, by the long-hundred of 120 lbs. and a check given for it by the clerk; with these men it is a ready-money trade, though some few give six or eight weeks credit. Many of the larger farmers send their cheese into the factors' warehouses without any stated price; such prices being subsequently fixed by the prices at Derby St. Luke's fair, in the middle of October, or others at Burton, &c. before or after this period. Prices have varied from 82 to 48s. per cwt. within the few last years. Sheep. It is probable that Derbyshire was formerly stocked with four distinct breeds of sheep, only the first of which remain to this day in their original situation and numbers, viz. the Woodland sheep, the breeding flocks of which, still extend over the gritstone and shale moors in Yorkshire and Cheshire, which adjoin to the mountainous district in the north of this county, called the Woodlands. The large tract of land over which this breed is spread, remained nearly to the present time in its original and unimproved state, and the breed of sheep without any attempts to alter or improve it, until that in 1810, His Grace the Duke of Devonshire introduced several Merino rams into his Woodlands of Hope, with a view to improve the quantity and quality of his tenants' wool. On the high limestone district, which adjoins south upon that abovementioned and extends south-west into Staffordshire, there was, while a state of common generally prevailed, a second breed known by the name of the Old Limestone sheep, but which, since the enclosure of the commons, have almost entirely given place to dairy cows, or to more useful varieties of sheep. In all the southern parts of the county, where no natural distinction prevailed between its soil and climate and those of Leicestershire adjoining, a third breed was common to both of these counties, and was known here by the name of the Old Leicester sheep, but which have now been almost universally crossed with, or have given place to the New Leicester breed, and to others. On the eastern side of the county, adjoining to Nottinghamshire, and to which it somewhat approaches in soil and climate, it seems probable that the Forest sheep, the fourth sort above alluded to, a good deal prevailed, until the New Leicester crosses and others have in a great measure taken their place. There are now ten different breeds of sheep, and seven crosses of these and others, viz.: 1. Woodland, 2. Old Limestone, 3. Old Leicester, 4. Forest, 5. New Leicester, 6. South-down, 7. Ryeland, 8. Portland, 9. Merino, 10. Spanish. 1. Gritstone, 2. Old Limestone and New Leicester, 3. New Leicester and Northumberland, 4. New Leicester and South-down, 5. Woodland and Merino, 6. South-down and Merino, 7. Ryeland and Merino. 1. Woodland or Moorland sheep are rather a small and long-legged sort of horned sheep, whose wool is fine, except on the breech: in general these sheep have white faces, but some have black specks on their noses and legs; it is customary with the flock-masters to cut the tails of their ewes, but to leave those of their rams and wethers at full length. There are no walls or other fences between the sheep farms of this Woodland district, or even between the different manors or counties, but the whole lies open together; the divisions being in general along the water-head ridges, or lines where the waters divide, to the different cloughs, dales or valleys. The upper parts of which valleys are often very rugged and narrow, and are entirely without habitations or enclosures, which are found lower down in these valleys, and where the farm-houses are also situate; the enclosures skirt round and indent by the valleys into this high, heathy and barren tract. Every morning, the sheep of each farmer are found at a certain gate leading out of the enclosed lands around the house into the open moors, at which gate they are usually foddered in severe weather; and from this place the flock is hunted, by means of the shepherd's dogs, trained for the purpose, to the very extremity of the farm, and something beyond, rather than short of the boundary lines of the next farms; where, being left by the shepherd, they soon begin to graze their way home, to the lea or gate abovementioned, and this they quickly do if the weather is stormy or bad; which the shepherd or his wife no sooner perceives, than a signal is given to the dog, who runs to the spot and hunts the flock a great way up the Moors, even to the boundary of the farm, often; and thus these poor animals are, in bad weather, and in the winter season, except in snows, almost perpetually in motion during the day. In order to guard against losing their sheep, under this gothic system, two Shepherds' Societies are established, one at Hayfield and another at Salter-brook house, who publish the names of all their members, the flock owners, and the marks by which each of their several sheep are distinguished; and at stated periods, meetings are held, for the shepherds to bring in and mutually exchange their strayed sheep. The enclosed lands around the farm-houses are principally mown for hay, and the after-grass is preserved for the ewes in the winter and spring, but the wethers and rams are mostly foddered at the leas or moor gates abovementioned, or at other walled leas or shelters, at a distance in the moors, and where their dung is frequently raked or swept up, for spreading on the enclosed lands. The lambs are usually sent out to be wintered, in the lower lands of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Cheshire, which surround this district; but besides the expense of driving, great loss and inconvenience is experienced in their being often very badly kept and treated, and taking the rot, when thus removed far from their owner's inspection, during the worst half of the year. A further extension of the enclosures on to the sides of the hills, and a greater spirit for improving them (which leases to the tenants only can induce) and rearing the greatest possible quantities of winter provender, might enable the keeping of the lambs at home, and much better providing for the sheep also, than at present; and the flocks ought to be attended by shepherd boys, who never leave them during the day.* The Woodland sheep breeders in this county are numerous, and the flocks range over the moors and mountainous tracts of the High Peak and Scarsdale. The ewes of this breed bring forth their lambs about Old Lady-Day, and, on an average, one in forty produces twins. They are usually shorn during the last week in June, and five fleeces are generally estimated to weigh a stone (14 lbs.) The lambs are clipped, and yield from half to three quarters of a pound of wool, which is used by hatters. The long tails of the male sheep are separately sheared; and the wool, which is called birling or belting, is sold for carpet making. Aged sheep of this breed, when well fattened, furnish mutton for the tables of the luxurious. The late Sir Joseph Banks, bart. was accustomed to send a score of these sheep from Scarsdale moors, to be fattened in his park at Revesby in Lincolnshire; and would jocosely remark to his guests-" Here is Derbyshire bone and Lincolnshire mutton." They are also fed for the Sheffield, Manchester and Derby markets, in the rich valleys of this county; and many noblemen and gentlemen keep a few of them in their parks for the service of their tables. When fattened, they weigh from 16 to 20 lbs. per quarter. There was another breed in the Peak, called the Old Derbyshire Limestone sheep. These were large, heavy, bony, polled animals, with thick skins and coarse wool, and were not easily fattened when removed to good land. They are now very rarely met with, nor are Old Leicester sheep often seen, at present, in this county, without a mixture of some other breed. The small breed of sheep from Sherwood forest, which extends from Nottingham to Doncaster, is purchased in considerable lots, and fed by the graziers on the banks of the Trent. They are a small short-legged species, with grey faces and grey legs. Some of them have horns, but they are usually polled. The wool is fine, and they cross well with Merino rams. From thirteen to eighteen of their fleeces weigh a tod (28 lbs.) and when fat they seldom exceed 9 or 12 lbs. per quarter; although under the management of the late Earl of Chesterfield, some of this breed have produced 5 lbs. of wool each, and have been fattened to 18 lbs. per quarter. Their wool fetches half as much again in price as the New Leicester wool. The late Mr. Samuel Oldknow had This account is taken chiefly from Farey's second Volume, published in 1817; and we are happy to say, that during the last twelve years, much improvement has been made by the sheep owners; even by those, who, being annual tenants, have no security but their confident reliance on the justice and liberality of their noble landlord. B b forest ewes of a similar sort at Mellor, which were said to have come from the Lancashire moors beyond Bolton. The New Leicester are generally called the Bakewell or Dishley breed. They were produced and brought to a state of perfection under the care of Mr. Robert Bakewell of Dishley. This famous stock originated from crosses by choice animals selected from the Old Leicester and the Lincolnshire sheep; the latter of which was the native breed of the fens, before the large-boned and coarse-woolled sheep were introduced to that county. The New Leicesters have been subsequently crossed by the Durham breed, and have been greatly improved by selecting the best ewes from various flocks wherever they could be found. Mr. Smith of Swarkstone Lows and Foremark, is the present occupier of the farm at Dishley, and devotes great attention to the preservation and improvement of this estimable breed. His great and particular objects have been to maintain the quality during the growth to early maturity, and to increase the size; as well as to improve the quantity and quality of the wool. Whoever inspects the flocks on Mr. Smith's various farms, will acknowledge, that he has fully accomplished these important purposes. He has, at present, about eight hundred of the New Leicester sheep. He keeps his rams in small paddocks, of excellent construction, with an open shed in the middle of each. During a single season, a ram of his has been let for £200. On May 7, 1829, three ram hogerells, previous to being exhibited at his annual sheep show, were weighed, and were found to be respectively of the following weights, viz.: 224 lbs. 240 lbs. and 265 lbs. Not one of these was lambed before February 6, 1828. Mr. Smith has frequently gained the first prize at the Derbyshire agricultural shows; and sheep bred under his care have been slaughtered in London, weighing upwards of 60 lbs. per quarter. The weight of fleece in Mr. Smith's flock, averages from 8 lbs. to 13 or 14 lbs. The following is a representation of one of Mr. Smith's favourite rams, called Carcass. The Ryeland or Ross breed of sheep, are small with very fine wool; and as they cross well with the Merino, they have been kept for that purpose by many persons in Derbyshire. The South-Down sheep have been introduced into this county from the chalk-downs of Sussex. They are a fine and valuable breed, and well merit the attention of the farmer. It is difficult to decide whether this breed, upon the red marl pastures of this county, do not generally excel the New Leicesters. They are certainly more prolific. These sheep have been successively crossed with the Merino; and by some persons this breed is esteemed to be the best fine-woolled sheep in the county. The Portland sheep were introduced into Derbyshire about seventy years ago, by the late Sir |